In this article we examine the link between financial – especially banking systems – and economic and we underline that all the current strategies regarding the financial system aims at increasing its competitiveness. The results show that the interest rate margin is significantly and negatively related to economic growth and the amount of bank credit does not accelerate economic growth. Its value is even negatively related to economic growth and the causality between the growth of credit and real GDP growth is unclear. The main reasons behind this result could be the numerous banking crises the transition countries have experienced and the soft budget constraints that are still prevalent in many transition countries. The banking system is of particular importance to the Romanian economy being a key factor in our future development. Romania’s admittance into the EU structures, depends on a large extent on its capacity to produce a sustainable economic growth which must be backed up by a reliable banking system which is capable of answering back both to the internal and external influences.